


All That I Can Be For You

by FiveFootAngel



Series: Stark Family Love Stories [1]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Acceptance, Asexuality, Bisexuality, Coming Out, Demisexuality, Female Homosexuality, Homophobia, Multi, Pansexual Character, Polyamory, Robb/Theon mentioned, Siblings, brief mentions of sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-03
Updated: 2015-08-03
Packaged: 2018-04-12 17:58:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4489245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FiveFootAngel/pseuds/FiveFootAngel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arya Stark has been called a lesbian more than once. It's frustrating, especially because she is the only one of her siblings who is even a little bit straight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All That I Can Be For You

**Author's Note:**

> I am personally mostly cis-het, and have little to no first hand experience with anyone's coming out. I am so sorry if I got anything wrong, please tell me so I can fix it. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy the fic.

Arya met Lyanna Mormont on the first day of highschool, when she was almost fourteen years old, and they were instantly best friends. It was one of the best days of her life. It was also the day that Joffery Baratheon decided that her instant bonding with similarly tomboyish Lyanna was proof positive that Arya was a lesbian, beyond her short messy hair and lack of enthusiasm for all the things that Sansa loved. Later, Arya and her whole family would look back on this day and laugh themselves sick, but at the time she was just interested in punching out Joffery’s teeth. This was all before, literally every one of her siblings came out.

 

The whole family had been waiting for Robb to start dating Theon since the dawn of time. After the amicable break-up with Jeyne Westerling, and an agonizingly long time when they had to pretend that they didn’t know, Robb and Theon finally admitted that they had been dating for the past six weeks.

“Ugh” She complained to Lyanna at lunch “Look at them, they’ve been completely disgusting ever since they finally told Mom and Dad that they were dating. I have never seen a bigger pair of idiots.”

Theon was sitting in Robb’s lap, and offering him bites of his sandwich over his shoulder while they flipped through Robb’s notes together.

“I can’t believe that Robb’s gay!” Wynafred Manderly cut in, shoving her tray against Lyanna’s lunch sack to squeeze in beside her.

“The fuck?” Lyanna complained, shoving back to try to reclaim some of her space at the table “Wynafred, no one asked you.”

“He’s not gay, he’s bi, and it’s really none of your business.” Arya retorted

“Come on, Arya” Wynafred wheedled “Nothing this interesting has happened at Westeros Valley for a long time. You have to share some of the gossip.”

“There’s really no gossip” Arya told her “It was really boring. They’ve been best friends since they were eight and we all knew it was coming eventually.”

“But he was dating Jeyne. Is it his fault or hers that they broke up? I think it might have been hers, because she’s kinda boring and your brother is really hot.”

“Jeyne is not boring! She’s really great. A whole lot more interesting than you actually.” Arya retorted, with more heat than was really needed, but it was the truth. Jeyne was going to be a pediatric surgeon someday, and Robb had no clue what he was doing because he was an idiot. And if this was Wynafred’s idea of an scintillating conversation, she was positive Jeyne was more interesting.

Wynafred huffed and got to her feet “You have a crush on Jeyne then? Don’t worry, I won’t tell.”

“What, even?” Arya asked, as Wynafred stormed off “Where did that come from?” she asked Lyanna.

“I’ve known Wynafred forever, so I can safely say that she’s just bitter that she didn’t swoop in as soon as Robb and Jeyne broke up. She thought that she could bide her time and end up looking better when they got together. She was wrong.”

“No but, the me and Jeyne thing?”

“To be fair, you do fit a certain stereotype”

Arya glared at her, and Lyanna rolled her eyes “Not that I agree with that stereotype or think it should exist, but you asked me to explain the words of a crazy person. You’re going to get a crazy answer.”

Arya sighed and blew her bangs out of her face. Lyanna pushed her pudding cup across the table in apology.

 

Six months later, right before Jon and Robb graduated, Jon and Ygritte got into a huge shouting match and Ygritte stormed away.

“You okay? Did she freak out?” Robb asked, and Jon retorted, tiredly, without any real bite “Shut up, Robb.”

Jon wouldn’t tell Arya what had happened, but he kept insisting that he and Ygritte were still dating (“Not yet” had been his actual, gloomy response when Arya asked if they had broken up) and that she hadn’t done anything to hurt him. He did seem to think that he had hurt her, but Robb had shook his head from behind Jon’s back, and he seemed to know what was going on, so Arya decided to trust his judgement.

At school the next day she sicced Sansa on Jon to see if he would tell her anything, and went to talk to Ygritte herself. She had caught up with her outside of school by the parking lot, and finally gotten to ask what had happened.

“I’m not gonna tell Jon’s secrets” she said stubbornly “Not even to his own sister.”

Which was actually really great, and would have earned Ygritte a bunch of points, if Arya hadn’t been so intent on figuring out what happened.

“Look, Arya, we get this figured out you’ll probably know in a few days anyway, and if we don’t then it probably won’t matter for a while. Please just let it lay.”

Arya had nodded, giving into Ygritte’s pleas against her better judgement. She let Ygritte sweep her in for a hug. She was shorter than Mother and Sansa, so her head rested on Ygritte’s shoulder, instead of her boobs. Ygritte was a very good hugger. She could see why Jon liked dating her.

“Look, there’s the Stark dyke, making a move on another one of her faggy brothers’ exs.” Joffery had jeered, as he exited the school. Because even though Wynafred had promised not to share her made up secret, she had.

Arya was about to go punch Joffery in the mouth again, when Ygritte grabbed him by his belt and necktie and slammed him against the fence “What did you say about my boyfriend, shitstain?”

“Bitch!” Joffery snarled, trying to get free, but Ygritte pressed her hand into his neck, and slammed her knee into his junk. He instinctively tried to curl up into a ball, but choked himself on the hand pressed against his windpipe “What did you just say about my boyfriend?” she repeated, faux patiently.

“Nothing” he wheezed out “I didn’t say anything about your stupid boyfriend”

Ygritte pressed a little harder against his neck, and then finally pulled away “Good. Keep it that way. And don’t say anything about his family either, you hear me?”

“Whatever, bitch.”

Ygritte stepped back into his space, pressing him back into the fence “Do you hear me?”

“Yes” he gritted out through clenched teeth “Yes, I fucking hear you.”

“I’m so glad.”

She stalked back to Arya and dragged her away. Arya glanced back at Joffrey, her eyes wide and wearing an open mouthed smile.

 

Three days later, Jon announced to the family at dinner that he was asexual. He and Ygritte had been holding hands and kissing and hugging all day, so Arya figured that they had worked through any awkwardness around that announcement.

Mom and Dad had had some questions, but Robb cut in then “Come on, you didn’t make me be your teaching tool about bisexuality. Give Jon the space to tell you what he wants. I know that you understand how Google works.”

It was nearly impossible to miss the quick grateful smile that Jon flashed Robb. Dad abruptly switched tact, and started talking about how great it was that Jon could confide in his family, and thanking him for his trust, and asking if he could get another bumper sticker like he had for Robb.

Jon hid his face behind Sansa while Robb cackled and pulled up Amazon to look for an “I love my asexual nephew” bumper sticker to add to the station wagon, right under the proud little rectangle that declared “I love my bisexual son.”

There was, unsurprisingly no merchandise of any kind bearing the message, so Bran pulled his tablet out of where it was wedged into the seat of his wheelchair to start designing one himself.

Arya reached over and started rubbing Jon’s shoulder, while Mom remarked that there was some leftover pie in the fridge that she would go heat up for Jon.

“Is this what you and Ygritte were fighting about?” Arya asked “Why were you guys mad?”

“Oh” Jon’s ears turned red “At first I thought that I would get used to...stuff, and start to like it, so I would let her. She was just worried that she had been taking advantage and making me uncomfortable. And it got kind of tense.”

Dad looked worried all of a sudden “Should I talk to her about respecting your boundaries?”

“NO!” Jon shouted, looking worried all of a sudden “No, Uncle Ned, you couldn’t.”

“It would really be too awful Dad.” Robb put in, and Sansa nodded and added

“Especially because they probably just had a discussion about what those boundaries are. It would look embarrassing, and like Jon doesn’t trust Ygritte to stick to what they agreed on. Promise you won’t, Dad.”

“Trust me Dad” Arya put in “She cares about him.

Jon looked over at Arya, and she nodded at him, trying to convey a promise to explain later.

So Jon’s coming out was a lot more emotional than Robb’s, which was frankly, par for the course where those two were concerned.

 

Sansa came out to Arya at nine in the morning over the summer between Arya’s junior and senior years of high school.

“Arya! Listen, I need you to do me a favor. I was planning on going on a breakfast date, then letting the person down nicely, but Jeyne went into labor and I have to be there. Can you do it please?”

Arya was not a morning person when she was used to waking up early for school, let alone over the summer. Sansa, Bran and Robb were all undeniably chipper every single morning, while Arya, Jon and Rickon only just managed to make it to the shower without major injury from walking with their eyes closed.

“Can’t you just call him?” She managed to ask after sticking her head under the faucet in the bathroom sink, opening the window to the hot air, and deciding that turning on the fan would actually be more effective.

“The signal is really bad there, I personally would not have picked that cafe. And she’s a girl.”

Arya choked on her own toothbrush, banged her elbow on the toiletry shelf and had a brief moment of panic, considering how ridiculous a way to die it would be. ‘Accidental Suicide via Toothbrush and Secondhand Gayness’

“Oh.” she finally managed when she realized that death was no longer imminent.

“So can I text you the address and a description of the girl?”

“Sure.” Arya said, on autopilot, already trying to picture Sansa in flannel and men’s jeans and short hair, doing all the things that had gotten Arya called a lesbian. It just wasn’t coming though. And she knew for a fact that Sansa still dressed in perfect skirts and dresses and styled her waist length red hair every day.

It didn’t take her long to put aside the line of thought and concentrate on drying her hair. She pinned her fringe to the side with a tiny black bow clip and wore the deep blue romper Sansa had given her. It was summer so it would be nice in the warm weather, and she figured she should put in some effort if the girl was waiting for Sansa.

She eyed the make-up bag that Sansa had left in the bathroom, and decided not to risk it.

She grabbed her wallet, sandals and sunglasses and rode the bannister down to the front hall.

Bran was by the door too, hollering up the stairs for Rickon to hurry up or they’d be late.

“Late for what?” she asked, just as Bran asked “Why do you look nice?”

She made a face at him, and grabbed the car keys from the hook by the door “Sansa wants me to let someone down nicely.”

She almost said “A girl!” and made goggly eyes at Bran, but she figured Sansa could reveal that in her own time.

“But you’re never nice” Rickon commented, jumping off the bannister and landing beside her. She made a face at him.

“I am so nice” she told him, and stepped out the door “So nice I won’t tell mom you didn’t brush your hair.”

Rickon squawked at her and Bran laughed as she shut the door behind her.

The cafe was easy to find, and it was cute inside, with mismatched crockery and hipster music being quietly piped in from a bluetooth speaker sitting on a shelf next to a typewriter and a cracked violin.

The girl at the counter had purple hair and a lip piercing and she was flirting with someone flipping pancakes who had a tattoo curling down into his shirt from his neck.

And try as she might, she couldn’t find anyone who fit Sansa’s description _‘A little shorter than me but still a lot taller than you, curly black hair, big blue eyes, probably wearing jeans. Her name is Mya.’_

All of the dark haired girls were either too short, or had straight hair. She walked around a little on the pretext of finding a table and none of the tall straight haired brunettes had blue eyes either.

She sighed and got back in line. She might as well get a coffee and a breakfast burrito since she came all the way out here.

The guy right in front of her in line, who wore ripped jeans and had to be pushing six and a half feet, raised an eyebrow in question “Get stood up?”

That stung and she glared at him. “No, actually. I’m not stupid enough to make a date for breakfast. I was coming here to meet someone for my sister. And she’s great, so I’m sure she’ll be here soon.”

He didn’t actually change his expression, but the question in it was clear.

“She asked me to come let a girl down nicely, but I don’t see her here.”

The guy covered his face with a big calloused hand and asked, voice a little muffled “Is your sister a six foot redhead with blue eyes and ‘legs that won’t quit?’ because that’s who my sister asked me to let down nicely.”

“That would be Sansa.” Arya confirmed “Also, ew. I never needed to hear her described that way.”

“Sorry.” he rubbed his face again “That’s what Mya said” he muttered, and pushed back his black hair, leaving it sticking up wildly.

“You wanna at least get something to eat since we’re here at this ungodly hour?” she asked, feeling some pity for the guy.

“That would be great.” he confessed, “My uncle thinks I’m going to hang out with friends, and it would be really awkward if I just went home and went back to bed.”

Arya grinned “Great. I’m Arya.”

“Gendry.” He had a really great smile.

 

When Sansa came home the next day, tired and showing off pictures of her brand-new godson, Arya grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her into her room.

“Why didn’t you tell me you liked girls?”

Sansa puffed out a sigh “I don’t know. You used to get so angry whenever anyone called you a lesbian. I didn’t think you’d be real thrilled that I was one.”

“I never had a problem with Robb or Jon not being straight! I just don’t like that people make assumptions like that! Or that they think it’s an insult! And, why on earth would you decide that this was the right way to drop it on me?”

“Well I’d been working up to it for a while! I thought that you were getting a clue when I was talking about all the girls I hung out with and how pretty they were!”

“You did the same thing while you were still dating boys!”

Sansa paused “I really did, didn’t I?”

“All the time!” Arya nodded “You have always been so into other girls!”

Sansa started laughing, and Arya felt a smile creep across her face. She collapsed onto her bed and Sansa sat down beside her, still laughing.

“All this time - I felt like you were wishing you had a different sister. When you were really just super gay?”

Sansa clutched at Arya’s hands “I never, never wanted a different sister.”

“Never?”

“Almost never.” Sansa dabbed at her watering eyes with the backs of her wrists “But when you put it that way, I can’t believe I didn’t realize I liked girls till college.”

“Did anyone else figure it out before you?”

“My roommate maybe. She was flirting with me right when we met.”

“Did you date her?”

Sansa shook her head, and smoothed down the back of Arya’s pixie cut. It always stuck up.

“Well you should know, Mya wasn’t there either.”

“What?” Sansa asked “She stood me up?”

“No, she sent her brother to let you down easy.” Arya grinned, and flopped back onto the bed.

Sansa started laughing again, and lay down beside her “I guess it wasn’t meant to be.”

Arya closed her eyes and pillowed her head on her big sister’s shoulder “I guess not.”

Sansa smoothed Arya’s hair again, and started humming, until they both fell asleep.

 

Arya almost started dating Gendry that summer, but he found out she was three years younger than him and had three older siblings, and then Mom and Dad found out, and long story short, they had to wait till after graduation. She didn’t really mind though, and Lyanna’s boyfriend Smalljon was older too, so it wasn’t like either of them had to be awkward third-wheels when they hung out at school.

 

Bran, like Robb, by his junior year of highschool figured out how to make his dorkiness desireable by artfully mussing his red curls and flashing a crooked smile. The whole family was aware of his charisma and the fact that more than half of Westeros Valley High was attracted to Bran, but he had never seemed to return any of that physical desire.

Arya heard plenty about the great people who Bran was going out on dates with, boys and girls (Arya had a classics lecture while he had math class and it had become a weekly texting session) but he never mentioned how hot any of them were. She figured he might be asexual like Jon, or possibly just not really into the idea of talking about who he was attracted to with his sister, (and she kind of wished that Sansa and Robb felt the same way).

Really, Arya should still have knocked before barging into his room, but she had just gotten home for winter break, and she wanted to tell him about the snowboarding trip that she and Gendry were planning.

“Miss me, nerd?” she asked, as she swung the door open and then recoiled in shock.

Jojen Reed was shirtless, straddling Bran’s chair, hands in his hair, while Bran’s hands were wrapped around what was definitely Jojen’s butt, and both of them were sucking face enthusiastically.

“Oh gods! I can’t see that!”

She shielded her eyes with her hands, and faced the other way.

“Please both be clothed and not touching each other.” she ordered them “I’ll wait.”

Bran groaned “You can’t tell Mom and Dad.”

“They know you’re bi, Brandon Stark.” she turned back enough to peek through her fingers, and yup, they both had shirts on, so she turned around.

“Yeah, but not that I’m dating Jojen.”

“Yeah, well neither did, I. I thought that you didn’t go any further than coffee and movies and holding hands.”

Bran smirked and laced hands with Jojen, who had been looking like he was trying to find an escape.

Arya knew that he was taunting her, the little shit. She would resist rising to the bait.

“Do you want me to go, so you can talk?” Jojen asked, but Bran shook his head.

“Why don’t you want Mom and Dad to know that you’re dating Jojen?”

“Because then they’ll expect me to leave the door open. And it’s way different doing that downstairs than it is doing that upstairs, so don’t even go on about how ‘We all had to deal with that.’ Downstairs, everyone is always walking by all the time, and you know Dad would see the open door and invite himself in.”

Arya shuddered in sympathy “Yeah, he would. Okay, I getcha. But I thought that you were dating everyone, and, going about it like you were a fourth grader.”

“Not anymore.” Jojen muttered, and Bran blushed “I’m demisexual. I only get attracted to people and want to kiss and...stuff if I already have an emotional connection to them.”

Arya nodded to show she understood. “Dad’s going to need another bumper sticker.”

Bran groaned again “No!”

“Yup. I’m going to get Jon to design it. It’s only fair, you designed the Asexual one for him.”

Bran glared at her “I will tell Mom and Dad about who really let Rickon pierce his ear. Then Robb will be on my side.”

Arya held her hands up in surrender “Fine, tell them in your own time. But you know that the bumper sticker is going to happen eventually.”

“I do” Bran admitted unhappily “It’s nice that they’re so supportive, but...”

“Yeah.” Arya nodded “They were at all of my soccer games in high school. Nice, but embarrassing. And they both try to bring their ancient history and literature into everything.”

Bran nodded and laughed, while she raised a hand towards Jojen “Good to see you Jojen. Bran, please, for gods’ sake, tell Mom and Dad soon. If nothing else, it’ll make their day that you trusted them.”

“In a month.” He promised, and Arya paused in the doorway and glanced back over her shoulder “What?”

“I just bought Rickon’s silence for a month, and I don’t want to waste it. He -

“Doesn’t do refunds or exchanges. I know. Little shit.”

Jojen raised an eyebrow a little, and Arya decided to let Bran explain this one. His boyfriend, his responsibility.

 

When Rickon started dating, he dated girls and boys and everything in between, and didn’t make a secret of it, or the fact that he was actively sexual with most of them. Arya honestly had no idea how Mom and Dad stood it - Robb and Sansa had been the only ones who had ever brought home a lot of dates in high school, and even they had taken it slow enough for everyone to learn their names.

It was actually Sansa who caught Rickon in his first serious relationship, over Arya’s last spring break ever, but she shrieked loud enough that Arya and Jon and Ygritte, who were the only other people home came running.

Rickon was leaning back against the headboard of his bed, Devan Seaworth sitting between his legs and leaning against him, while Shireen Baratheon knelt on the bed in front of them.

“Seven Hells, Sansa!” Rickon snapped “Knock much?”

Shireen was scrambling off the bed, and Devan was blushing and trying to escape the arms that Rickon had locked around his waist

Ygritte looked from Rickon and Devan, to Shireen, and started giggling “No way. Baby Stark has more game than all of the rest of you put together.”

There were hickies slowly forming on Devan’s neck, and Shireen’s hair had been taken out of its usual two braids. The ones that her father insisted on putting it in every morning. Her father....

“Rickon, why have you been making out with my boyfriend’s cousin?”

“Why are you dating my girlfriend’s cousin?” he retorted, finally letting Devan go

“I’ve been dating Gendry way longer than you’ve been dating anyone! Your voice hadn’t even dropped then!”

“Girlfriend?” Sansa repeated “Since when do you go steady with anyone?”

“By all the gods” Ygritte was laughing “Jon, your little brother is awesome.”

Devan was pulling his sweater back over his black undershirt, but had seemed to decide it was safer with his head inside. Shireen had gone redder and redder, and was tugging her hair over the scars on her face in a way that looked defensive.

Rickon noticed and made a distressed noise, leaping off the bed to grasp her hands and push her hair out of her face.

“Hey it’s okay. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Arya glanced at Sansa, and she could see her sister’s shock melting away. Her own heart was softening too, and she knew that Jon was the world’s biggest pushover for any of them. He would deal with this however Rickon wanted to.

Devan’s head popped out of his sweater, and he went to stand next to Shireen too, laying a hand on her waist and scowling at them.

“My dad is going to kill me.” Shireen’s voice quavered as she addressed Rickon and Devan “And probably both of you.”

“We won’t tell anyone.” Arya rushed to promise “But Rickon, you should tell Mom and Dad. They know you’re pan, they won’t get upset that you’re dating two people. But they hate it when we keep secrets. And they’ll be there to support you when you tell other people.”

Rickon scowled “Easy for you to say. You have your perfect straight relationship with your perfect straight boyfriend. Grandpa Tully never raised his eyebrows at Christmas because of you. Aunt Lysa has never tried to lecture Mom about how your life is unnatural and unhealthy. You’ve never had anyone yell insults at the two of you for holding hands in public. None of your friends have told Gendry he was selfish for dating you. Mom’s never asked you-

“That’s enough Rickon.” Jon’s voice was hard enough to break rocks “Arya has done more for all of us than you could ever appreciate.”

Arya gaped at him, disbelieving, but Sansa nodded “You weren’t old enough to understand it at the time, but all the bullies who look down on us? They looked down on Arya first, and for no reason but because of how she looked and because she acted different than girls are told they’re the supposed to.”

“But no matter how many times they made fun of her, she never let it make her bitter about us.” Jon continued “She never said that it was insulting to be called gay, she was angry that it was an insult, and angry that they made assumptions about her.”

“And even if we were nervous about coming out in general, we always knew that Arya would have our backs.” Sansa put it “because she’s always there, no questions asked, if you need her she’ll show up.”

Ygritte put in “She came to me to make sure Jon was alright, right before he came out to your family. That was when I started to have faith that we could make it happen. When I saw how much his family cared about him, I knew that I couldn’t give up just because of some miscommunication. Not to mention the way that you would have all murdered me.”

Arya closed her eyes and looked down. “Stop it all of you. I’m not all that. I just try to be a good sister.”

“And that is the greatest and most important thing you could ever be to us.” Sansa insisted “There are so many poor kids out there whose siblings don’t give a damn about being there for them. But we all knew that wasn’t you.”

“Yeah, do you think Theon’s brothers were anything like you when he and Robb started dating? There’s a reason he practically lived over here during high school.” Jon squeezed her shoulder, and made her look up at him. “They called him gross slurs and ratted him out to their dad who rejects everything outside of his personal worldview. You told Robb and Theon that they were really boring and sickeningly sweet and shouldn’t make out in the kitchen where we all had to eat.”

“Joffrey makes Myrcella’s life a living hell because she lost an ear. Do you think she could ever tell him she’s bi? I came out to you last minute in the worst possible way, and you helped me and kept it my secret.”

Arya could feel her eyes watering and her nose tingling. She was going to cry soon if they didn’t stop. Then, the next thing she knew she had her arms full of a snotty, sobbing sixteen year old, who clutched her she was the only thing keeping him from drowning.

“Sorry.” Rickon whispered into her ear “Sorry. I just get so caught up in it sometimes I forget who’s on my side.”

“Me.” Arya whispered back, wrapping her arms around him. “Me. Always.”

 

 


End file.
